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Catamounts catapult past stunned Dogs

Setback a black mark on tournament resumé

Considering Georgia's bubble status regarding the NCAA postseason, there's no such thing as an unimportant game.

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That's why Wednesday's 2-1 loss to Western Carolina hurt as much as it did.

"We've got to sweep (Auburn) this weekend if we have hopes of doing anything," right fielder Bobby Felmy said. "We just didn't look like we were ready to play. Fortunately, we've got two weekends left. We've got to play hard, and we've got to win."

Along with the dent to its overall record, Georgia (25-22) didn't do its RPI any favors by losing to the Catamounts (28-19).

Western Carolina is ranked 64th in Boyd Nation's latest RPI rankings, meaning Georgia will likely drop in those standings prior to this weekend's crucial SEC series against the Tigers.

The Diamond Dogs came into Wednesday's contest with an RPI of 25.

A team's RPI is one of the main factors the NCAA selection committee will use to choose the 64 team-field for postseason.

Georgia coach David Perno is trying to be as optimistic as he can.

"This didn't matter. We could beat Western, we could beat Winthrop, we could beat UNC-Asheville, but if we don't beat Auburn we're going to be sitting home in two weeks anyway," Perno said. "It's a situation where before the game started we were committed to playing a lot of guys, we stuck too it, and it bit us. It just didn't happen."

Georgia had its chances.

However, the Diamond Dogs wasted a leadoff double by Felmy in the sixth before blowing another opportunity in the eighth after putting runners at first and third with one out.

Trailing 2-1, a walk by Matthew Dunn was followed by a Felmy single. Jason Jacobs then swung at the first pitch he saw from Brian Barnes and popped softly to short for the second out. Barnes then struck out Jonathan Wyatt to end the eighth inning.

Clint Ramsey earned the save after setting Georgia down in order in the ninth.

Western Carolina outhit the Diamond Dogs 8-5.

Bo Lanier (4-2) took the loss.

Georgia also hurt itself on the basepaths.

Catcher Blake Murphy was only 4-of-16 throwing out baserunners entering the game, but he caught three Diamond Dogs attempting to steal. Another baserunning mistake occurred in the third, when Felmy was picked off of second base by starter Jon Kibler.

"It just didn't seem like we were ready to execute," Felmy said. "Me getting picked off of second was stupid. We just didn't do much well tonight."

The Southern Conference Catamounts proved to be no midweek pushover.

Western Carolina beat Georgia Tech 8-5 on March 29 and came into Wednesday's games having won five of six.

Winning pitcher Luke Miller (6-2) was also on the mound when the Catamounts defeated the Yellow Jackets.

"That was probably our best game of the year," Western Carolina coach Todd Raleigh said. "We had one tough inning, but our catcher (Murphy) made some big plays which seemed to relax everyone. And we played well the rest of the night."

Georgia scored its only run in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Joe Billick.

NOTE: An oddity occurred in the third inning when on-deck hitter Josh Morris never got to the plate after the Diamond Dogs had runners at first and second with nobody out. No double play was involved. Instead, Felmy was picked off second before Jacobs was caught stealing for the second out. Kyle Keen followed with a grounder to third ending the inning. ... Morris had his 12-game hitting streak snapped. Joey Side, meanwhile, extended his hitting streak to nine games.